Flexible electrical connectors are used in a variety of miniaturized high-performance electronic assemblies. Traditionally, these flexible electrical connectors are housed in a connector housing which is molded from a suitable plastic material, and the connector housing may be disposed between a pair of printed circuit boards in a typical product application.
Each flexible electrical connector comprises a plurality of finely-spaced circuit elements or traces carried by an elastomeric core. The traces may be formed from a gold-plated nickel-clad copper foil for superior conductivity. Typically, these traces are 3 mils wide with a 7 mils center-to-center spacing, such that the traces have a 4 mils spacing therebetween. A complete line of flexible electrical connectors is supplied by AMP Incorporated of Harrisburg, Pa. under its registered "AMPLIFLEX" trademark.
In miniaturized high-performance electronic assemblies, such as those used in communication equipment, notebook or laptop computers, and products in the consumer electronics industry, space is at a premium; and very often, the product design must also be adapted to a particular configuration dictated by product function and existing housings. As a result, heat dissipation may become a serious problem and, unless alleviated, could result in deteriorated performance and, ultimately, product failure and reliability problems.